Tempting the Tycoon

Chapter 22

"Tell me again why we're here?" Orrin asked Alexios the following Saturday night as they paused just inside the main ballroom entrance within the Paradise Hotel. Alexios had accepted the retirement party tickets from his mother, and after a week of deliberation, he still hadn't come to a crystal clear decision of what he would do now that he was here. He just knew he wasn't about to leave tonight without speaking to Sydney. His sanity depended on it.

The days following Sydney's departure and his confrontation with his mother had been hell. He never wanted a repeat of what he'd gone through. He hadn't eaten, he'd barely slept. Thoughts of him and Sydney crowded his mind during work hours and when he lay down at night. He snapped at anyone who ventured to speak to him, and every time his phone rang his body jolted like he'd been electrocuted.

This had to stop. If ever he'd needed proof how much Sydney meant to him, these past two weeks had provided it. He never realized how much he'd come to depend on her in his life. What had begun as a simple summer dalliance had morphed into an obsession. Which now seemed to have transformed into a staggering need.

After her ambush, Alexios's mother had handed him the invitation and tickets to the retirement party, saying quietly, "Think hard about what you want for your future, Lexie. And with whom you want to share it. It's not a decision to make lightly." Indeed. And all he'd done since then had been to think. Think, and worry, and call Sydney, who still refused to answer.

So here he was, storming her castle in the hope of gaining an audience with her. He had to talk to her. Right now he felt like a poison victim scrambling for the antidote that would save his life, but it remained just out of his reach. And Sydney was that antidote. He needed her to sustain his life, and it was up to him to convince her that he was worth rescuing. The problem was he didn't know if she would agree.

Turning now to his brother, who wore the requisite tuxedo that mirrored his own, Alexios made a face and hoped the desperation he felt didn't show through. Orrin was like a wolf. He'd attack at the first sign of weakness.

"You're here to get shit-faced drunk and get laid. Oh, and to be my moral support, according to Mama, but that last is debatable." He met Orrin's gaze and couldn't help but grin at his brother's hopeful expression. This was the longest stint Orrin had gone without a girl, and he bemoaned the fact daily. They really were a pair, when you looked at it objectively. Handsome, wealthy, and educated, yet neither one of them had a woman on their arm. Pathetic.

Grabbing a champagne flute off a passing tray, Orrin tossed its contents back and wiped his mouth on his cuff. "To hell with moral support. I told you a month ago to make Syd your wife. Anyone that can put up with your stick-up-the-arse attitude, you need to snap up and take out of circulation. But you didn't listen to me then, so why start now?"

Alexios also snagged some liquid courage and mimicked his brother, enjoying the bubbly explosion in his throat before replying.

"Because I can't think. No, scratch that. I can think, but only about her. But what if she won't talk to me? What if I'm too late?" He cursed the thread of worry that wove its way through his words hoped his brother wouldn't pounce on it.

"Oh, for Christ's sake, Lex. This isn't some geometric sales formula that you have to 'Pythagorean' the death out of! You go chase her down and make her listen to you. You're hot for her and she was able to put up with your snobbishness. It's a match made in heaven. You just have to convince her of your feelings. Now go on, tiger, and get your mate. Because if you don't, I will. Someone as fine as Syd doesn't come around twice, and if you're too stupid to figure that out, I'm not. I can show her what a real man's made of."

Even though he knew his brother wouldn't break the sibling code of honor of not poaching, Alexios still grabbed Orrin's shoulder and halted him in his tracks. And glared into his brother's jack-o'-lantern face.